Queering Your Therapy Practice: Queer Theory, Narrative Therapy, and Imagining New Identities

by Julie Tilsen

Winner of the AASECT Book Award for General Audience 2022!

Queering Your Therapy Queer Theory, Narrative Therapy, and Imagining New Identities is the first practice-based book for therapists that presents queer theory and narrative therapy as praxis allies.

This book offers fresh, hopeful resources for therapists committed to culturally responsive work with queer and trans people and the important others in their lives. It features clinical vignettes from the author’s practice that bring to life the application of queer theory through the practice of narrative therapy and serve as teaching tools for the specific concepts and practices highlighted in individual, relational, and family therapy contexts. The text also weaves in questions for reflection and discussion, and Q-tips summarizing key points and practices.

A practical resource for both seasoned therapists and students, Queering Your Practice Theory demonstrates how therapeutic practice can be informed, improved, and deepened by queer theory.

Genres: Psychology, Queer, Counselling, Grad School, Queer Studies, Nonfiction, Social Work

195 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 20, 2021

Reviews

[Jennifer Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every therapist should read this--seriously. I read things that were enlightening and insightful. I'm not a narrative therapist, per se, but I am always open to shifting into praxis that shepherds clients from marginalized spaces and helps them feel seen and heard. I was uncomfortable in moments of this book--which tells me I have some work to do. I love knowing spaces where I can improve and do better. I feel inspired!

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapter 5 ("Queering Narratives, Honoring Lives") is a must-read. Tilsen explores the limitations of contemporary mental health treatment with nuance, compassion, and a fierce dedication to dismantling the sociopolitical systems that bind us to restrictive ways of being. We're talking neoliberalism, privatization, compulsory coming out, etc. Smart, hopeful, and so very queer. 8.5/10.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Storying queer resistance requires our action on multiple fronts: de-privatizing therapy, in order to invite multiple perspectives and foster belonging; diagnosing discourses, as a refutation of the burden of individualism; and using response-based practices, as a way to re-center people as active agents in their own stories. | Partnering with people in the construction and circulation of these resistance stories also requires that we enthusiastically occupy and embrace the position as co-conspirators.”

Recommend x 10. A really readable primer on queer theory and how it may integrate with narrative practice. 🦄

[Jacqui Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a beginner in narrative therapy practice, and this book provided such an accessible and insightful overview of what a queer-informed narrative therapy practice can look like. Queer theory and narrative therapy feel like such a natural fit with each other and come so intuitively to me as frameworks for my practice. I’m genuinely so grateful for resources like this and can see myself coming back to review this book often.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellent (despite a lot of typos). Tilsen lays out specific ways to resist norms of individualism and neoliberalism when working with therapy clients. Response-Based Practice and Narrative Therapy align so well with queer theory, and are very helpful frameworks for working with clients with marginalized identities. She illustrates these concepts comprehensively and carefully.

“As therapists, we can make the mistake of assuming that effects such as fear, shame, sadness, etc., represent only the negative results of oppression or trauma, rather than also a person’s value’s, ethics, and intentions.”

[Steven Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening. Breathtaking. Jaw dropping. A call to be a questioner of discourse, challenging not only my perspective of what it means to be a therapist but how I interact with my world: to queer or not to queer—there is no question!

[Rafaella · Rating 5 out of 5]

An invitation, better yet, a call to action and to question the status quo. Tilsen's background in narrative practice is apparent in her accessible and commanding writing style. I highly recommend to those in the field and will be revisiting and referencing this book often.

[James Deaville · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an informative book that is really going to impact my practice going forward.

[Aryn Katterjohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish this book was required reading during my graduate program!!

[Lexie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book for a clinical interventions course in my MSW program. I was curious about narrative therapy as a practice in general, and for someone who wants to work with the LGBTQIA+ community, I thought this book would be a good fit. Boy was I right! I love how point-blank Tilsen wrote this book, it helped me read this relatively quickly for class while also learning a lot. Narrative therapy is a modality I am considering more and more for future clients thanks to this book.